1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to distributed network management. More particularly, this invention relates to providing and facilitating interaction with distributed manager information of a network, and managing distributed manager entities of a network in an orderly and redundant fashion.
2. Background
Computer systems are increasingly becoming commonplace in homes and businesses throughout the world. As the number of computer systems increases, more and more computer systems are becoming interconnected via networks. These networks include local area networks (LANs), such as are commonly found in businesses and educational facilities throughout the world, as well as some homes. LANs also frequently have an interface to other networks, such as a wide area network (WAN) or the Internet, and this interface needs to be monitored and controlled by network management on the LAN.
One concern encountered with networks is referred to as network management. Network management refers to monitoring and controlling of the network devices and includes the ability for an individual, typically referred to as an administrative user, to be able to access, monitor, and control the devices that are part of the network or access, monitor and control the interfaces of the network coupled to other computer systems. Such access, monitoring, and control often includes the ability to check the operating status of devices, receive error information for devices, change configuration values, etc. As the size of networks (that is, the number of devices that are part of the network) increases, so too does the need for network management.
One type of network management that can be used is referred to as distributed management. In a network employing distributed management, multiple distributed manager entities are established that perform access, monitoring, and control functions for selected devices that are part of or interfaced to the network. These distributed manager devices can then be accessed by an administrative user. However, one problem typically encountered with distributed management networks is the lack of ability for the distributed management system to provide to the administrative user user-friendly feedback and/or management and/or redundancy capabilities for the distributed managers. This problem is only exacerbated as the size of networks increases.
Thus, a need exists for an improved way to provide and facilitate interaction with distributed manager information of a network.
A method and apparatus for providing and facilitating interaction with distributed manager information of a network is described herein. According to one aspect of the invention, a method for displaying distributed manager information for a network identifies a set of distributed managers within the network and also identifies, for each distributed manager in the set, a client system assigned to the distributed manager. A distributed manager of the set of distributed managers and the client system assigned to the distributed manager are also displayed, via a graphical user interface.
According to one aspect of the present invention, distributed managers of the set of distributed managers that are overburdened are identified, and the overburdened distributed managers are displayed in a manner that distinguishes the overburdened distributed managers from the non-overburdened distributed managers.
According to one aspect of the present invention, both distributed managers of the set of distributed managers and client systems are displayed as icons, and assignment of which manager manages a client system can be changed by dragging and dropping an icon corresponding to the client system on an icon corresponding to a distributed manager.
According to one aspect of the present invention, an indication of a manager that is a backup for another manager is displayed via the graphical user interface.